Marquez pips Rossi, Lorenzo to pole

Qualifying delivered a dream scenario for Sunday’s race, with Yamaha duo Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo grabbing second and third place on the grid.

Marques set his pole lap of 1m39.411s early in the session. Lorenzo was second, followed by Ducati’s Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso.

But Rossi produced a flying lap mid-session to leapfrog all but Marquez, who also set out to improve his time only to lose the front end of his Honda mid-corner and crash out.

It didn’t hurt the Spaniard in the end, however, as he hung on for pole. Rossi was able to improve his initial lap time to pip Lorenzo, who had since moved back into second, although it was not enough to dethrone Marquez.

Dani Pedrosa leads the second row of the grid, followed by the Ducati duo Iannone and Dovizioso in fifth and sixth.

Maverick Vinales was seventh quickest for Suzuki.

Earlier in the day, the final practice session was disrupted after Pramac Ducati rider Scott Redding appeared to have a sudden tyre issue at Turn 6.

The session was red-flagged twice, first to clear the debris from the circuit, and then to investigate a possible safety issue related to the tyres.

Michelin later said via Twitter: “We are analysing what happened and will know more later.

“As yet there are no restrictions on the usage of tyres for qualifying.”